INDIA
Child porn ring leader arrested
Indian police on Thursday arrested a student on charges of running an international child pornography network through a messaging app, an official said. Detectives from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided multiple locations across the country and arrested the 20-year-old administrator of a WhatsApp group at his home in the city of Kannuaj in northern Uttar Pradesh state. The group run by the student had more than 115 members from at least 18 countries, including the US, Mexico, Kenya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and New Zealand. “We arrested the administrator of the WhatsApp group and recovered computer hardware and mobiles phones used to upload and store the videos and pictures,” a CBI official said. India has stringent laws against child pornography, and authorities have tried to crack down on abuses in recent years.
RWANDA
Refugees protest food cuts
At least five refugees were killed and 20 injured at a camp in Rwanda after a protest over a cut in food rations turned violent, Rwandan police said yesterday. Seven policemen were also injured. About 3,000 refugees had camped outside UN offices at the camp since Tuesday. Police on Thursday tried to disperse them using teargas, police spokesman Theos Badege told state radio. “We used force ... yesterday afternoon after warning that security forces would be used,” he said. The refugees from neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo had left their camp in Kiziba and walked 15km to Karongi, in western Rwanda, to protest against a 25 percent cut implemented last month in rations provided by the UN refugee agency. The World Food Programme had warned of more cuts if monthly requirements of US$2.5 million were not met.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese